Sacred is defined by the Miriam Webster dictionary as, something highly valued and important, and sacredness as, entitled to reverence and respect. While a new baby is often associated with this definition, it is less commonly associated with the birth process. For the women I interviewed, sacredness in birth was identified as one of the four key themes they articulated about their birth choices. This was not a religious reference at all, but more a statement about the importance of the birth of their baby and their own transition to motherhood.
Part of the exploration of the theme of sacredness spoke about the need for reverence for the innate capacity of women to give birth, and that that process was not interrupted unnecessarily. It was important for this group of women that their birth was not viewed as a medical procedure that needed to be managed to external criteria, but rather honoured as a rite of passage for both mother and baby that could be safely navigated with the physiological processes of their bodies working together. In this way sacredness was a lot about undisturbed birth as a safe process, and best achieved when accompanied by reverent, watchful attendants who did not seek to dominate the space with medical “requirements”. A key factor for these women when choosing care providers was their ability to honour the birthing process for both mother and baby and to ensure an atmosphere of reverence and respect in the birth space. The women spoke about their desire for soft lighting and quietness, or gentle music at the time of birth, in preference to bright “surgical lighting” and alarms and buzzers and lots of loud noise. It was also mentioned frequently that the women themselves wanted to be the first to touch their baby, or for their partners to be the one to greet their baby, in preference to the gloved hands of strangers to whisk their baby away so they could only look across a bright room at their child while others did things to their baby.
Sacredness also held a deep place in the women’s descriptions concerning the environments they laboured in and welcomed their babies into. It was a statement of honouring the transformations that occur for mother and baby during labour and birth, and recognising and honouring this moment as one of great importance. The moment of seeing a baby new in the world, one that has been dreamed about and loved from the moment of its creation is something sacred. It’s the personification of the last “nine months” of pregnancy, and the entering of a whole new unique and precious person into the world. It is a moment worthy of being honoured and cherished.
A moment no less wonderful is the blossoming of a woman into a mother that occurs when every baby is born. Seeing the otherworldliness of a woman in labour where she delves deep into her primal forces and transcends fear to enter the world as a mother when she births her child is also an event to be honoured and cherished. As a midwife I will never tire of seeing the look of exhilaration and love on a mothers face when she sees and feels her baby for the first time outside of her own body.
These sorts of elements about a birth are very rarely ever discussed, and it’s increasingly considered indulgent if you want something more from your birth experience than to be delivered of your baby. Yet it is precisely these moments that deeply impact us moving forwards from our birth. When women feel honoured, respected, cherished and revered for birthing their babies its possible for them to know those things about themselves and step into motherhood from that position knowing they have experienced a rite of passage.
It’s hard to measure the impact on the life of a baby for being born into an atmosphere of sacredness, respect and love, but if I was a baby I know what I would be hoping lay beyond my journey of leaving the womb.
